Dance with the Deacon

"It is real bad Ed." I said those words when we were standing by the fire. I had a plate of stew in my hand. I knew even as I had dipped the stew that Ed wanted the word but I didn't much care I was hungry. If he didn't go along with my plan then we were going to die. I wanted to at least die with a full belly.

"They got thirteen men staying in the bunk house and they know we are coming. My guess is they are going to be on the ground in fighting positions. If we ride into them they will cut us to pieces. Man on a horse is a lousy shot." I thought I had made my case pretty well.

"The cattle have to have water and they have to have it today or tomorrow at the latest. We are going to have to water them, that is all there is to it." Ed was as adamant as I had expected he would be.

"I got an idea. It might work. If nothing else it will get them on the horses and us on the ground." I smiled when I said it. I spent the next ten minutes explaining it to him.

"That ain't got no chance of working, but then again you are right. We go in there guns blazing and a lot of my cowboys are gonna die. Take ten men and all the shovels we got. Make it look good."

I noted with a great deal of satisfaction Big Ed did not want to join us. It was why he paid me. It was clear he was a rancher not a warrior. It was the middle of the day when we arrived at the spot a half mile above the wire.

"I want a trench dug over here. Make it as deep as you need to so that you can feel safe if we start shooting these people. You might want to go ahead and dig it deep enough for a grave in case we don't talk them into giving us water." Everybody knew it was going to be water or lead. Those were the only possible outcomes. While they dug the trench I set the first charge off at the river bank. I had no idea what I was doing but it didn't matter. I just wanted to make some noise while I collapsed part of the river's bank.

I had set off three charges before they arrived. I had also made a pretty good sized little cove. Not enough to water almost a thousand head of cattle but enough to look like it might be possible given a day or two. I would have needed another couple of cases of dynamite at least to do the job.

"Hey, what the hell you doing to my river," the older man asked. I didn't recognize him but I did recognize the two with him. They had been two of the ones I had spoken with the day before. The man was thin in the way old men got on a ranch in those days. If Big Ed live to be the old man's age, he would lose most of his bulk. The man was small but by no means frail. He was small like dried rawhide, tough and stringy.

"Well Sir, I am making a watering spot for our cattle. I figure it will be done by tomorrow." I noted with satisfaction that he counted guns while I spoke. The man was no dummy.

"What do you plan to do make a shallow cove here for the cattle?" he asked it with real concern in his voice.

"Either that or divert the river over to that gully a couple of hundred yards away. Just depends on what I get done with four cases of dynamite." He didn't know or need to know that I was all but out of dynamite.

"You know I can't let you do that. It will take the water from my cattle." He looked nervous.

"Dead man, don't have to worry about cattle. Nothing else far as that goes. Best we can figure you got thirteen or so men. You come back with them and we gonna be in those holes. We are gonna kill ever damn one of them. Then I personally am gonna kill you. Sorry but that is the way it plays." I gave him my best evil look. I had just done as much as was possible to end the standoff without a fight.

"If I let you water at the shallows this stops?" He didn't look happy at all.

"It stops."

"Bring the cattle on down. We will take down the wire ourselves." He looked like he might have something in mind.

"Good, the Indian and I will make sure there are none of your men around. If there are we come back to this place. I will personally blow hell out of this river bank. So you best keep them away."

"You don't trust me?" He looked at me with a smile.

"Not a bit," I said with a grin.

"If you need a job after this, come see me." He turned his horse. The three of them rode away.

Everything else about watering the cattle was anticlimactic. Big Ed took the whole next day to make sure all the cattle got enough water to drink. He lost a few head because the watering was so chaotic. I sat in my saddle worrying what treachery the old man had in mind. It was a futile exercise. The old man stayed away. Moving the cattle in and out of the shallows was a miserable job. I was even pressed into service to help with it. The Indian stood guard over us.

Once the watering was complete we pushed north. A few miles up the trail the river turned east so we parted company with it. It had been a dry spring but enough rain had fallen on the plains so that the grass grew regardless of the drought. The search for water kept the Indian busy most of the time. I rode with him just to keep him out of trouble. Big Ed needed him alive and I liked the man. Still there were those who didn't. Some with good reason to hate all indians and some with no reason at all. Either way I tried to stay close.

After the water incident something gnawed at me. Big Ed avoiding the fight really effected me. I realized Ed was no coward. It had to do with his being able to hire men like me to go out and die for him. He could pay for men like me to defend his property. Like I said before, I had hired out my gun previously. I had just never realized that the money was the key. If you had it no matter its source you had to defend it. The man with the most money hired the most guns to defend what was his or to take what wasn't. That knowledge led me on in my planning for after the drive.

While the thoughts ran through my head the Indian alerted me to the rider coming up on our rear. We watched him change from a cloud of dust to a rider on horseback. Then finally to someone from the cattle drive. He was riding purposefully toward us. I figured it meant trouble for me. I couldn't think of any reason that the Indian would be needed badly enough to send a rider for him. I sensed the Indian knew it too.

When the rider got close I noted his red hair. He would obviously be called red or some variation of it. When he got close enough to speak the horse had been slowed then reined to a stop.

"So Red, what's got you all in a lather?" I asked it even though I could have just remained quiet like the Indian. Red was going to tell me regardless.

"Big Ed sent me to fetch you. He is all in a rage."

"Now what had got him all upset?" I asked it knowing whatever it was had to do with me and my gun.

"Rawhiders cut out ten head and rode west with them. Ed wants them back."

"How long ago?" I asked.

"Well I been riding all day so it was yesterday."

I turned my attention to the Indian. "You comin?"

He shook his head. Killing wasn't his job and I knew it. The Indian might kill to defend his own life but the cattle meant nothing to him. I headed southwest hoping to cut their trail. The redheaded cowboy rode along. I didn't bother to ask him why. He was obviously under orders from Ed.

I was moving too slowly for the cowboy. "We never gonna catch them at this rate."

"We are never going to catch them if we ride these horses to death. Yours is already spent. You should head back to the herd for a fresh mount."

"She will be fine," the cowboy said. Hell he was a drover and should know his horse's limits so I shut up. When night fell we hadn't cut their trail so I pulled up under the only tree I had seen in over an hour. He acted as though he wanted to build a fire. He didn't say anything just moved around like he was getting the makings ready.

"Forget the fire Red. We run a cold camp." I said it as I began rubbing down my horse. Red I noted began work on his animal even though his heart wasn't in it. I had a feeling his mind was on coffee.

"You don't mind if I roll one do you?" He asked it with the pouch of tobacco in his hand. I could have stopped him but I decided not to bother.

"Nope, they are not looking for us. We are looking for them.' I could tell he didn't understand. It didn't matter much.

The next morning before noon we cut their trail headed west. Red and I turned to follow. We had gotten lucky. If we had gone farther west we would have missed them all together. They pulled up not more than two hours after we cut the trail.

I wasn't the Indian but I knew there were three loaded down horses pushing ten or so head of cattle. It stood to reason that all three of them were hold up in the tiny shack. The shack was built by a wandering stream. It would have been ideal had there been a small rise with a stand of trees overlooking the cabin. No such luck, there was only the flat plains surrounding it. I was well within range of my rifle when I removed it from the scabbard. I also removed the peep sight from the saddlebag. Opening the wooden box without dropping it all was a trick on the slightly moving horse.

"What are you doing?" Red asked.

"Getting ready to take back the cattle," I replied.

"Well we are going to get closer aren't we?"

"Why, do you want to get shot at. There is a high probability you will get killed in a gun fight. Is that what you want Red. Do you want to die?"

"Hell no, but I ain't gonna be no good to you this far away."

"Don't worry Red. You don't have to be." By that time I had the rifle together. It took a couple of more minutes but the men in the cabin came outside. I was too far away to tell much but it was pretty clear they were armed to the teeth. Whether they were or not made no difference. I took aim at the one on my right side of the ragged line they formed. The horse stood perfectly still. I was sure it would be the last time he would do that so I took careful aim. When I pulled the trigger there was the blast of a controlled explosion from the shell. A second later the man fell. It took another second for the other two to react. Their reaction was first to fire several rounds at us. None of them came even close to where we sat.

Since my horse was fidgeting I climbed down. I dropped his reins since he was well enough trained not to run off on me. The men ran into the cabin when I climbed down. The were smart enough to know that the death of their friend had not been a lucky shot.

I wasted a shot into the cabin's walls just to get them returning the fire. I knew one was standing inside the door and the other by the left hole in the wall. Those holes were what they used for ventilation. There was no glass in them so you couldn't really call them windows.

I aimed the rifle at the spot where I thought the one in the door would be standing. I gently squeezed the trigger to send death over the hundred or so yards. The scream barely audible on the wind told me I had at least wounded him. Smoke poured from the window. Three clumps of dust rose in front of us. The Rawhiders were down to one shooter. I was about to put a couple of rounds through the window when he came out with his hands up.

I drew a careful bead on him. I was just about to pull the trigger when I was stopped by the voice of Red.

"You aren't going to shoot him with his hands in the air are you?"

"I was, but if you want to carry him back to Ed it makes no difference to me." I said that looking Red in the eye.

"Well I sure don't want to kill him in cold blood like you did the first one."

"Okay then you ride down there and bring him back here. After that we can go down and get the cattle." I said it looking at the cabin.

"Why ain't you comin with me?" he asked.

"Because Red odds are fifty fifty that man inside the cabin ain't dead. He is probably laying in there with his rifle. He could be just waitin' for us to ride down there so he can shoot us. Now you feel free to go on down there, if you want to take the chance. Me, I will just wait right here for you to come back or to kill them after you are dead. Don't make no difference to me."

I could see his mind working. "Hell, they are rawhiders."

"Good point, so I assume I have your permission to shoot the one in the yard?"

"Yeah," he said. I noted he looked away when I shot the man standing beside his dead friend. His body fell almost on top of the first one.

"Well we still got to go down there?" Red made it a question.

"Yep, but not right now. If he is hurt the longer we wait the better. Blood loss will get him soon enough. If he is dead don't make no difference how long we wait, he is still gonna be dead. The only bad thing about the three hour wait was that there was no shade. It was hot as blazes.

When we finally went down I chose to circle around. We came on him from a direction he could not see from the door. He could watch from some of the other holes in the shack but not the doorway. It might not help to come up from a different angel but it couldn't hurt either.

The two in the yard were very dead by the time we finally reached them. The one in the house was almost dead. Red was still outside when I shot him in the head. I walked outside to find the cowboy leaning against the shack. He looked as though his jerky and cold biscuit might just reappear.

"You all right?" I asked it from a few feet away.

"Yeah, I just never killed anybody before."

"You still ain't kid. I killed them." I watched him for a second. He needed something to do I decided. "Red, lets go saddle up their horses."

"What for?" he asked.

"We are going to take these three back to the drive to bury. I want Ed to see his rawhiders."

The return trip didn't take all that long. It was just one night on the trail. When it began getting dark I asked, "So Red you tired enough to sleep with the dead or do you want to push on?"

"If it is all the same to you Pete, I think I would just as soon keep moving." Red looked about to fall from his saddle. Even falling from his horse must have seemed preferable to sharing a cold camp with three stinking corpses.

"Suits me just fine," I said as I turned back to the trail. Just before dawn we cut the trail left by the cattle. We followed it till we found the wagon tracks then followed those. A short while after sun up we were within sight of the wagon.

"Red you want to ride ahead and find the boss, or do you want to stay with this lot?" I asked it raising the horse's reins.

"Just as soon ride ahead," he replied. I would have bet on that. After what seemed like a inordinately long time Big Ed returned with the kid.

"What the hell did you bring those bodies back here for?" Bid Ed asked.

"You paid for 'em, thought you might want to see em''." I looked him hard in the eye.

"If you had told me they were dead that would have been enough."

"If that had been enough you wouldn't have sent the pup with me," I was still looking hard at Ed. Since the water incident things had changed. Ed felt I no longer trusted him so I guess he felt he could no longer trust me.

Ed looked a bit uncomfortable when he spoke. "Well get them in the ground. Turn the horses into the herd they ain't worth much but we will settle up when we reach the railhead. I got no use for the guns though."

He had seen the rifles tied to the horse with the thinnest man draped over the saddle. The pistols were tied on the side away from where he sat. He could not have seen them.

"They ain't worth much but I will find someone who wants them." I watched as he turned away.

"Red," I said to the retreating cowboy. "Get us a couple of shovels and lets get these guys in the ground."

"You killed 'em', you bury 'em'," he said it as he rode away.

"Seems like your stomach has returned pup," I said it quietly. I looked around to see what was handy. I found a stand of trees about a hundred yards away. I rode slowly to it. When I arrived I found a low spot in the ground. I cut the ropes holding the bodies to the horses. When all three were in the depression I mounted my horse and rode away.

"Sorry guys you was worthless but you should have got a hole anyway. I just ain't up to the diggin' of it."

I rejoined the Indian as I was tired of the company of my fellow white men. From Big Ed to the cowboys every one of them made me want to kill somebody. We were almost at the rail head when one of the cowboys caught up with me and the Indian.

"Big Ed wants you killer." He said it with a smirk. I knew then that the pup Red had been talking.

"Tell you what cowboy. If you are ready to die, you talk to me like that one more damn time." I put my eyes on him as if he were already dead. I waited to see if he would break the gaze or go for a gun. Either way he was going to come off second best.

He spun his horse then rode away. I watched his back as he rode quickly toward the herd. "Smart ass is gonna get himself killed one day." I was talking to myself but he Indian heard. He didn't say a word just nodded.

For some reason the Indian knew something. He rode back with me to the herd something he had never done before. When we arrived Big Ed met us.

"Lost about ten head last night. The trail is over that way." With those words he turned then walked back to the chuck wagon. If there had ever been any regard between us it ended right there. If he had been anyone else, I might have killed him. I didn't only because there were twenty men he owed money. They would surely have killed me.

The Indian rode with me to find the trail. I am not a great scout but I can follow ten head of cattle without a tracker. I said nothing because the Indian always had a reason for anything he did. We found the spot where the stolen cows left the herd. It wasn't more than a few hundred yards before the Indian got down from his horse then walked about.

"Three men on horses with no iron on feet," he said it as he looked up at me.

"Indians?" It was a question which wasted my breath.

"Hunting party," was his answer.

"Why would they want beef. I thought indians hated the taste of beef?"

"Not as much as they hate to see their little ones starve." It was a speech of epic proportions for the Indian. And it was a different man who spoke.

"I never heard you speak so much. You sound awfully white." I was smiling.

"Missionary school," he replied.

"You sure we gonna find starving Indians when we find the cattle?" I asked it knowing better than to waste my breath. I trusted him completely.

"I am sure," he replied.

I gave it a lot of thought before I answered. "Well then I guess my cattle drive days are over." I didn't know what I would have done two months before, but I knew I couldn't kill a bunch of starving Indians over somebody else's cattle. I must be developing a conscience. That thought brought a smile to my lips. The Indian couldn't read the smile so he looked worried.

"You better get on back out ahead of the drive. I will go talk to Big Ed."

The Indian nodded. He had a gut level understanding of how it was going to end. After we parted I turned my horse to the herd. I found Big Ed at the front of the herd. Somehow he didn't seem all that big to me anymore.

I reined up beside him before I spoke. "Ed, did you know that it was Indians that cut the herd?"

"Saw the tracks." Ed had become a man of few words.

"Well I am sorry but I am not going to go shoot up a camp of starving Indians. If they bothered to steal beef they are hungry."

"Why they did it don't matter none I want my cattle back." He was looking at me with a really strange look. He looked like a man with what he thought was a winning hand. I realized then that Ed had grown uncomfortable with me around. He wanted to get rid of me and it was his way. Force me to quit rather than risk firing me. The only reason he needed justification was so that I wouldn't kill him just for the hell of it. He obviously thought I might. That knowledge robbed him of his aces.